Trevor McDonald's Anthology

LONGFELLOW became very well known as a man of letters, not only because of his skills as a poet but also because his work contributed to the sophistication of American intellectual life.

He made no secret of his admiration for Milton, Keats and Tennyson, and so assured was his reputation outside his native America that on his final trip to England in 1868 he was granted a private audience with Queen Victoria.

Longfellow was a thoroughly Victorian poet, whose work became less fashionable in later years. This poem suggests that he knew how transient fame can be.

The Poets by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

O ye dead Poets, who are living still Immortal in your verse, though life be fled, And ye, O living Poets, who are dead Though ye are living, if neglect can kill, Tell me if in the darkest hours of ill, With drops of anguish falling fast and red From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head, Ye were not glad your errand to fulfil? Yes; for the gift and ministry of Song Have something in them so divinely sweet, It can assuage the bitterness of wrong; Not in the clamour of the crowded street, Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

From The Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Wordsworth Editions, 1994)